Thursday, March 26, 2009

Hi friends and family – thank you so much for all of your support. The cards, e-mails, phone calls, meals, baking, are all wonderful.

It’s been 2 ½ weeks since surgery. My right arm is still very sore, but I have some new pain medication so that may help. I met with the surgeon today, she is happy with the results which show all 12 lymph nodes that she removed are clear, and she got the clean margins around the tumor. For those that like details, it was a grade 3 (aggressive) cancer, triple negative, but it was caught early so my cancer is considered Stage 1c.

Next steps are to meet with my oncologist and determine a plan for chemo and radiation. Until that starts, I focus on healing. Hopefully this snow and ice will disappear so I can get out and walk more!

Monday, March 16, 2009

They removed the drain today! Although Brad had nicknamed it my chia pet, I was very happy to see it go. I am not the most graceful person (really) and having a long tube hanging off me is a disaster waiting to happen. 'We' dropped it once while attempting to pin it to my pajama top (the stitches held it in place but it hurt!) and I caught it on the arm of a chair once or twice...

The nurse at the Breast Health Centre removed the drain and also the bandage from the incision. Pretty ugly looking to me, but she says it looks good. I only have one incision since the lump and lymph nodes were all taken from the same incision (horizontal, under my arm).

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Hi, I’m home now, thanks for all the good wishes, it helps more than you know. It was an unexpected overnight stay at the hospital (and my boys didn’t want to leave me there), but it was fine. They found me a bed in a room with 3 very sick ladies (one had emergency surgery for a perforated bowel, one had some kind of internal drain being put in for her liver, and the other is having a 4-day epidural to manage her pain following her surgery). Really puts things in perspective and made me feel quite well off (I was the only one able to get out of bed to brush my teeth this morning).

As for my surgery, in addition to the tumor, they took out 10-12 lymph nodes. That’s why I needed the drain, which stays with me for 5-7 days. I won’t have any further information on the stage of the cancer or if it has spread or not until my follow-up appointment in a couple of weeks.

I’m very sore and quite tired, but it’s only day 2 and I’m happy to be home. Thanks again for all your good wishes.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Had a great time in Ixtapa (Las Brisas) - the Canadian Road Builders Conference, sponsored by Manitoba Heavy Construction. Guess what field my husband's in... the conference was so well run, great activities, awesome surroundings, excellent food... I had a really good time, rested up, got my work out of my system, and prepared for surgery (scheduled for the day after we got back). Quick stop in Toronto on the way back to visit Calem, Eric and Liam (and their parents), and then back to reality.

About Me

Diagnosed with Breast Cancer in Feb 2009, and off work while I go through treatment (surgery, chemo, radiation).
At time of diagnosis, I am 43, married for 17 years to Brad, and we have 2 boys - Zach is 14 and Carter is 11.
I run outdoors year round and have done 3 half marathons (one in the snow). I want to do a full marathon at least once. I plan to spend time outdoors walking or running as I go through my treatments.